The present invention relates to the field of change management and, more particularly, to utilizing asset signatures to detect and manage derelict items within an asset management system.
One of the biggest challenges facing change configuration management within large and small data centers is to identify and subsequently relinquish unused assets. Traditionally, when assets (e.g., server, platform, software) are automatically provisioned, additional assets associated with security, data, and enablement can be provisioned during this process. Many of these additional assets cannot be tracked and/or linked to the primarily provisioned assets. The challenge is further compounded when a data center expands by adding new assets. While feedback mechanisms exist to manage provisioned assets, the additional assets can go unmanaged. Consequently, server sprawl and other less than optimal situations can result as the additional assets continue to go unused.
When it is necessary to relinquish the provisioned asset, the asset can either be retired or reused. However, all additional assets can typically continue to use resources (e.g., memory, disk space, processor load etc.) in the data center. Security risks can occur as a result of the existence of these assets. For example, when a “pinhole” is utilized within a firewall to permit access to the asset, the pinhole can remain after the asset is retired. While conventional systems excel at discovering assets and even tracking assets throughout the asset lifecycle, these systems cannot manage additional assets which typically have relationships to the provisioned assets that are generalized, obscure, and/or undefined via their tooling. That is, conventional change management systems fall short when these relationships deal with infrastructure modifications.